Miata Mailing List: November 1994, Message #44
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   From: a.mccombs3@genie.geis.com
Subject: front plate laws
   Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 00:01:40 -0500

Bob, I dunno what the front plate laws are in CA, but here in MD, they have
to be visible from the front of the car.  (The book doesn't go into further
detail, as I recall.)  About a year ago, right after we bought the car, I
too decided to move the ugly plate from the beautiful nose.  I removed the
license plate bracket entirely, and bolted the two holes in the upper edge
of the plate to the downwardly protruding bolts that the plate bracket was
secured to before removal.  This would place your plate horizontally, above
the inside of the "mouth," but there are some generally vertical plastic
members inside the mouth, so the plate has to be bent or curved downward to
clear them.  Net result:  The plate is tucked away inside the mouth, but is
visible from a couple car lengths in front of the car.
 
I left it like that all last winter, but when spring came, I found that the
temp. started climbing on a long, shallow upgrade with the ambient temp.
around 85 deg. F.  (If you never leave the S. J. Valley, you'll probably be
alright up to the mid-90s or so.)
 
At that point, I started experimenting with inverting the plate bracket, so
the plate is in front of the "chin" of the car.  I don't like it there, but
it's better looking than in front of the nose, and it doesn't block the
airflow sufficiently to make the coolant temp increase above normal.  I
spread the attachment ends of the plate bracket to match a couple holes just
inside the "mouth," and secured the plate bracket to those points.  (As I
recall; I had the old, scarred up - from the previously mounted license
plate - plastic nose replaced last summer, and the body shop put things back
together a little differently than I would have.)
 
Anyway, having the plate down in front of the "chin" will keep the coolant
temps from increasing above normal, even with 100 deg. F ambient and long
upgrades, which we have a few of back here.  Be careful about parking lot
bumper curbs and such, though.  The plate only clears by a few inches with
this setup.  I'd love to be able to take the whole damn front plate and
bracket and chuck it, but there's no way I can do it around here legally,
and I'm the guy who always gets caught at whatever I do vehicle-wise that
doesn't check out perfectly with the law.
 
And BTW, I haven't received my fall issue of Miata Mag yet, so I haven't
seen the flex mount you mentioned. My problem is the way the thing looks
when it's parked, not when it's moving, since I can't see it that way when
I'm driving.  There was another plate mount advertised a while back, which
merely moved the plate over to one side of the front
opening/grille/whatever, and I believe it to be worse than the stock
mounting.  YMMV.  Good luck, and if you come up with a really neat way to
accomplish all this, please let us know.
                                                --Jack M. & Kansei--